As the painful ringing in her ears subsided with the buzzing war cry of bees, the Beekeeper approached her from the honeycomb halls of the great hive he'd trapped her inside of with him.
"Forgive me for my ungraceful etiquette for hosting guests in my home. I don't leave my hive often to socialize with outsiders these days. When it comes to manners, I'm afraid the wasps have become a bad influence on me," Beekeeper said, as if it were only a small inconvenience to be shanghaied against her will into a strange man's beehive. "It was never my intention to take you by force, Lady Kamizuru, but you gave me no other choice."
And slowly gaining mastery over her balance again after the onslaught of his Bee Illusion Jutsu, the bee kunoichi trembled as she rose to her feet, pushing herself through a buzzing headache as she took an offensive stance against him.
"That Aburame boy," Beekeeper said to her. "He must be someone special to you, if you are willing to endure so much suffering for his sake. Anything worth having in this life is made more precious by the pain we endure for it. Wouldn't you agree?"
"If you want Aburame, you're kicking over the wrong hive," she warned him. "I won't stand by and watch you kill him. If you think he is your enemy, you have yet to face me. I am an exile of the Kamizuru clan, which means I have no loyalty to anyone who stands in my way."
"Then you are precisely everything I hoped you would be," Beekeeper said. "Exile or not, we are still Kamizuru. And I have been waiting to meet the daughter of Dakubachi for a very long time."
"So, it's my father you have a bee to pick with?" she concluded. "Sorry to disappoint you, but he's a narcissist, and you won't get any ransom money out of him. He doesn't exactly want me back, which is probably why he exiled me in the first place."
"That does sound like the Daku I remember," Beekeeper nodded, mumbling in thoughtful agreement.
"And who are you, exactly?" she questioned him. "More importantly, why am I not killing you?"
"There's no need for us to engage in uncivilized melee like the ones outside."
"Uncivilized?" Her brow perked in amusement at his hubristic word choice. "You kidnapped me."
"The politics of the Kamizuru clan are no business of outsiders. That Aburame can't trace us inside this beehive jutsu," the Beekeeper said. "Despite my lack of social graces, we're on the same side, Lady Kamizuru."
"You summoned a bee on me," she countered him.
"Merely a harmless diversion," he rebutted her offhandedly. "I would never turn my jutsu against a fellow beekeeper. However, my 'distractions', if you will, were not all petty. It seems you and the Aburame have gotten closer since you came to this bamboo grove...How very misfortunate for you both."
"Trying to get us killed was a game to you?"
"A simple showcase of your abilities," he corrected her. "How else would I have evaluated your skills as a ninja? Had you become my student years ago, as I intended you to be, I might have watched you grow into a formidable insect shinobi. Even now, I find great promise in your Beekeeping Art. An art that is soon to die with the last of our clan. That is why I lured you into this bamboo grove. To preserve the Kamizuru Clan's history and our hidden jutsu by passing on my legacy to you as my student. Should you accept my offer, I will teach you everything of Beekeeping Jutsu I know. I implore you to accept me as your Sensei."
"Why should I accept any offer from you?" she asked him. "I don't even know you."
"Of course. How ungracious of me," he pardoned himself. "Allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Hansukebachi Kamizuru."
"Hansuke? The traitor?"
"A maverick, like yourself," he reframed the title. "And like yourself, I too was exiled from the Kamizuru Clan."
"You started a war within our own clan," she challenged his perception of history. "I was sent to stop it."
"Of course you were. How else would Daku convince you to follow orders without questioning them?"
"We are not the same kind of shinobi," she vowed to Hansuke. "I never turned against my own clan."
"You abandoned your allegiance to Daku's clan, that day you hid Shino Aburame from your teammates in the Leaf forest."
"The boy I met here in the forest years ago did not give me his name," she stated stoically. "He might've been an Aburame...or He might've been a Sarutobi, or an Uchiha, or an Akimichi, for all I knew of him."
Hansuke, the Beekeeper, grunted amusedly to himself.
"Truly, what's in a name, as honey made from any other flower would taste just as sweet?" Hansuke mused. "But trusting another Kamizuru isn't as easy as honey. If the boy were an Aburame, and anyone should find out it was an Aburame you were hiding that day, there would be no hope of you ever returning home to our clan...That is what you're most afraid of in revealing your true self to Shino, isn't it? You lose everything.
"However, even as you hesitate now to take such a risk with him, it seems you still can't stop protecting your beetle friend. If it was truly in your heart to kill Shino, you had every chance to get your wish and return home, by letting him die in battle against my Queen Bee summon."
"Actually, my only wish is to kill him with my own skill," she corrected him. "Your bee got in my way."
"And why was it Shino, a ninja primed for a Jōnin level of skill,that a drop-out ninja like you must kill to prove yourself in the end?" Hansuke questioned her. "Seems like quite a grim condition for a daughter to satisfy before asking her father's forgiveness and permission to return home...Almost as if...you were assigned this mission with failure as the only expectation for you...Though, if execution was what Daku really had in mind, didn't he have a more direct way to kill you?"
"I suppose the expectation of failure is mutual between us. I never expected him to be the father I needed him to be. Not anymore," she answered somberly. "But as my clan leader, I know that his expectations are high for any ninja under his command. So, for the good of the whole clan, I will not be the one to disappoint him. Shino was classified as an imminent threat to the Kamizuru. Had it been his name, or someone else's, my mission would've been the same."
"And yet, how could it ever be the same, when you care so deeply for Shino?" Hansuke asked her quietly. "Watching you two work together in battle...it's almost as if you might've been soulmates."
"What did you say?" she called him out in a breathy huff of puzzlement. "Soulmates? How dare you even suggest that Shino and I could be-Who do you actually think you are?-That I would ever go so far as to-"
"To acknowledge the feelings you already know within you to be true? You're in love with him," Hansuke boldly finished her sentence. "You have loved Shino Aburame since the day you first found each other in the Leaf Village...And it is that love that protects him, even now, from the Kamizuru in you that has come here to kill him."
"I never knew a Beekeeper to be such a romantic. What you call love is only a means-to-an-end for me," she set the record straight. "To break your jutsu, I needed the Aburame alive, and I needed him to trust me. At least for now...If he believed I was a friend, this one he called Firefly, I could do both those things, all while studying his weaknesses and framing a new plan to defeat him."
"Hm...could it be...I wonder if that is the answer. This whole thing is a very interesting coincidence."
"Wait a minute, were you even listening to me?"
"Hm, hai? Oh!" he cleared his throat. "Forgive me, you were saying, Lady Kamizuru?"
"Unbelievable."
"Precisely, I was just thinking the same thing," he pondered on. "All of this, after all, has happened before."
"Whatever you mean by that, I'm not interested in changing a past I can't fix," she told him. "I'm only interested in what I can do to change things for the Kamizuru Clan now, and that includes finding a way out of this bamboo grove. So...if you don't mind..."
"Hm? Oh, you mean to ask me if I know the answer to breaking this jutsu?" Hansuke took his guesses. "I do not."
"But it's your own jutsu! How can you not know?"
"I almost told Aburame the exact same thing," Hansuke stated matter-of-factually. "I have no control over this fog."
"In the straightest answer possible, what do you mean you almost told him the exact same thing?" she questioned the Beekeeper.
"I told Shino that it is Shino himself who keeps himself trapped in this fog," Hansuke informed her. "He is free to leave this bamboo grove any time he wants."
"Enough of your confusing riddles!" she sighed, massaging her throbbing temple. "What does all that even mean?"
"Only Shino knows what it means," Hansuke replied, ever cryptically. "I do not have the answer. His answer is as good as my answer. And my answer is as good as your answer."
"Don't you have anything else useful to say?" she asked him. "Or did I really wait all this time to find you, so you could tell me absolutely nothing?"
"It is not up to me to decide for you how you should proceed from this bamboo grove, Lady Kamizuru. However, as different as our answers to leaving here may be, I suspect our reasons for staying in this grove are painfully much the same," Hansuke told her. "Though I can not offer you an answer, I can offer you perspective."
"Well, it's not like I'm leaving this beehive any time soon," she sighed, dropping into a seat again. "I'm listening, Beekeeper."
"You've been misled," he said. "You were not sent on this mission because you needed any reason to redeem yourself. The only crime you have committed against our clan, Lady Kamizuru, is that you have chosen love and friendship when others have profited from our revenge and hostility. You were chosen for this mission because Shino Aburame is your true match."
"Of course, I know he's my opponent. Why do you insist on telling me things I already know?"
"No," Hansuke declared. "The reason Akirabachi abandoned her search for your soulmate was because the name of your soul-match had already been forced into her hands. Yet...to accept such a match would undo everything your father has built his power on. You were sent to kill Shino, not because of the danger he presented to your family, but because of the danger a love like yours posed in challenging Dakubachi's plan to take down the Aburame Clan."
Confounded and stilled, her face glowed as pale as her moonlight hair. His words hitting her like a rock solid lump of beeswax to the face.
"But...that can't be true," she whispered. "How could it be? Shino is from the Aburame clan. Why would I ever be matched with a ninja outside of our clan?"
Disquieted again by Matchmaker Akirabachi's words that slowly came back to torment her.
"What haunts your dreams is a Kika beetle."
The Kikaichū beetles...how hadn't she remembered the tiny scurrying hints of her dream before...every painstaking detail of Shino's bugs crawling across his face.
The way Shino had stepped in and used his beetles to protect her from the Queen Bee with his bug wall technique.
The gentle way his bugs brushed against her skin when he gave her his chakra.
"Those bugs are exactly like the beetles from my dream," she realized, her skin crawling with goosebumps. "Why wouldn't Akira just tell me the truth?"
"I have no match for you," Akirabachi had said. "You will never find a husband in this village. There is nothing I can do for you."
"Now that I think about it," the Kamizuru couldn't make the damning revelations stop now, even if she wished she could unsee all the tormenting little subtleties. "It was right after I told Akirabachi about my bizarre dreams that I was sent on this mission."
"Do you understand how serious our matchmaking jutsu is?" Akirabachi had reminded her. "An alliance by marriage is how you will gain power and recognition for the Kamizuru name."
My husband?
Could that really mean that he was always my one true match, and that me and Shino were meant to be...
She couldn't make herself finish that thought.
"Out of the question," she persisted to Hansuke. "The Aburame are our enemies. Why would Great Matchmaker Akirabachi foresee me as one day becoming Shino's wife? There must be another reason for all this. Akirabachi called me 'unmatchable'. It's the only thing she made clear to me, and she said nothing about me marrying an Aburame."
And, if under some definitely-impossible-and-definitely-hypothetical circumstance, a Kamizuru had been matched with a member of the Aburame Clan, it would mean anarchy!
It would mean chaos!
...Just like the chaos of her being suddenly dumped into exile, as a matter of fact...
Could it really be...that all this time...the reason I was sent to kill Shino is because...he is my soulmate?
"It is your will of fire," Akirbachi had convinced her. "Refuse your match and you will bring bad karma upon our clan. You know the Kamizuru curse. It is ominous to reject your fated soul-match. Every time it happens, a terrible tragedy has come to the Kamizuru clan."
"And so...they decided I was better off dead than to be offered this match, and bring bad karma to our family," she came to the foreboding conclusion. "Knowing that I could never accept becoming an Aburame's bride...As I couldn't risk falling so much in love with him, that it'd make me an enemy to my own clan..."
"It is as I said before," Hansuke answered quietly. "It is a misfortune for you both that you must choose your side...Will you use your alliance with Shino as an advantage to restore honor to our clan? Or will you allow this foretold love between you two to tear the Kamizuru apart again?"
"I can't marry him," she regretfully whispered, shaking her head in absolute certainty. "Whether he is my soulmate or not, our clans resent each other. Allowing my feelings to grow for Shino will only mean suffering for both of us in the end."
"Despite the will of fate, that you should join your husband in the Aburame Clan, it is bad timing...It does seem that a marriage between the Aburame and Kamizuru clans would only aggravate things. Perhaps now isn't the season for a wedding," Hansuke said. "In order for a marriage to happen between our head families to thrive as it should, there's more work to be done for peace."
"There will never be peace between the Aburame and Kamizuru."
"Not if you continue to accept your father's way of doing things," Hansuke pointed out. "For the sake of Shino, and the Kamizuru Clan, I beg you to abandon your mission. Reject the dark fate Dakubachi has chosen for our clan, and fight for true peace. Even if that peace means keeping your identity hidden from Shino in the meantime."
"You mean, he can never know my real name?"
"If he knew it, he will always come looking for you," Hansuke said. "As soulmates, you possess an innate desire to find and protect the other. A lifelong, unbreakable bond that will lead to more harm for each other than good, if our clan politics remain the same. And so, Shino can never know why you were sent to kill him. If word of your assassination attempt gets back to the Aburame clan, it will only make tensions worse. Destroying the one last hope Etsukobachi left behind for peace."
"Do you really mean the Etsukobachi?"
"You remind me of her," Hansuke said quietly. "You have her spirit. Almost as if history can't help but repeat itself. But that is the tragic thing about history, you know. No matter how hard we try, we always forget what we learn."
Hansuke faced her again through his heavy beekeeping mask.
"So I beseech you, Lady Kamizuru," he pleaded with her. "As the daughter of our clan head, do not drag Daku's war into this bamboo grove. Forget your mission to kill the soulmate you love. Enough people have lost their lives in this merciless hatred between our clans."
"How does my choice mean so much to you?" she asked him curiously. "Why exactly were you exiled from the Kamizuru Clan in the first place?"
"Your father and I were old teammates," Hansuke informed her. "Dakubachi, Etsukobachi, and I were close since our academy days in the Stone Village."
"You were on a team with Etsuko?" she asked in awe. "She's a legend in our clan!"
"Like yourself, she was also a daughter of the Head family. The one in power before your father seized control. Matchmaker Akira chose Daku as her soulmate. Back then, many looked up to him as a good leader for the Kamizuru...until he became obsessed with two things: becoming clan head and his love for Etsuko. A love that, much to Daku's torment, would remain unrequited.
"Etsuko was not interested in marriage with him, and openly opposed the match. It was only I who had known then how much Daku had done to impress her since our academy days. How many dangerous missions he barely made it out of alive to earn his place as Clan Head...And to win Etsuko's love...How crushed he had been to realize how invisible he still was to her, after she rejected their match. She once said to me that though she loved Daku as a close friend, she could never let him lead the Kamizuru. She was afraid of 'darkness', she said. The kind she thought she saw unrealized deep in his eyes."
"Darkness?" Hansuke's listener wondered. "What did she mean by that?"
"I asked her the same question. Daku was one of the most powerful ninjas in the Stone, but he was known more widely for being the kindest," Hansuke said. "He was a hero in the village, and there were plenty of bachelorettes dying to meet him, should Etsuko choose not to marry him. But Daku was determined to change her mind and ease Etsuko's worries about him. After all, going against Akirabachi's Scroll of Fated Souls has always led to something terrible happening in our clan. Rejecting her match should have only been considered in the direst of circumstances, and Daku was afraid of what might happen, if he could not work things out with Etsuko and convince her to marry him."
"So, even back then, the clan was still superstitious," she remarked. "But if Etsuko rejected her match in the end, was there really a curse that came down on the Kamizuru Clan?"
"Well, I was an entomologist, and as a serious scientist, I did not believe in urban legends like a matchmaker's curse," Hansuke said. "Whatever Etsuko's true reasons were for not marrying Dakubachi, she made herself Daku's competition to become clan head first. Too many lives would be at stake, she'd said, if she didn't take leadership of the Kamizuru. Etsuko wanted peace and collaboration between other insect clans, but Dakubachi wanted to restore power and honor to the oppressed who deserved it. She and Daku could never agree on what direction to take our clan.
"And soon, Daku lost support in the village in favor of Etsuko's pacifist approach. The Kamizuru were tired of fighting our rivals with no progress, especially the Aburame Clan. Daku's dream of becoming Clan Head was almost devastated when Etsuko was chosen as our leader by the elders. He wouldn't let it go. And the last hope he had of earning the clan's support was to ensure that war with the Aburame Clan continued.
"So, Daku went out on his own mission to make sure it did.
"He left the Stone without permission from the clan elders, and went on a killing rampage, taking out key Aburame members, and raising hell for Shino's grandfather, Shinta, Head of the Aburame Clan at the time. Shinta was pressured to retaliate, as Daku sparked more hatred and outrage over the unprovoked violence.
"But back in our village, I worried for Etsuko's health when we heard the news about Daku's rogue missions. She had been feeling sick for weeks, and worrying about our clan alliances didn't help. Everything she'd worked for to bring peace between our clans crumbled with Daku's massacres.
"She couldn't help it but to sneak off without telling me, trying to find a way to stop Daku herself. I followed her to the Leaf Village with a tracking bumble bee, and that's when I found her in the forest with...Well, it was then that I discovered the truth about her. That night, once I learned the reason of why she refused to marry Daku, Etsuko confessed to me that she was pregnant.
"She begged me to keep her secret, until she decided what to do to hide her child, knowing what danger the baby would be in, should anyone discover the identity of his father.
"The night after I discovered Etsuko's secret, the Leaf Village named Daku as a terrorist and declared war against the Kamizuru clan. The Aburame were sent to meet us in battle.
"Shibi Aburame was a young leader then, training with his father, Shinta, in coordinating an insect battle.
"Shinta Aburame defeated Hirotobachi Kamizuru in battle, Etsuko's father.
"And after watching Hiroto die, Etsuko challenged Shinta to battle, being obligated as Hiroto's only child left alive to avenge him.
"I tried to stop her from going to battle, knowing her delicate condition. But Etsuko was so grief-stricken over her father, she refused to stand down.
"How could she? None of it should've ever happened...Everything she'd fought for was crumbling before her eyes.
"I had no choice but to let her go and take her revenge.
"Etsuko put on her father's beekeeper armor, her identity hidden behind the great mask. She soon faced Shinta on the battlefield, but at the last moment, Shibi stepped in to fight her instead, taking his aging father's place.
"And with all the Kamizuru and Aburame watching, Etsuko could not back out of the fight with Shibi. Not without shaming our clan for forfeiting the match.
"I couldn't protect her.
"Etsuko and Shibi were the pride of their respective clans. In their fierce battle, there was never an opening for me to jump in and stop them. I knew if I fought Shibi with her, we could defeat him together. But every time I tried to help her, Etsuko threatened to kill me herself if I turned my bees against Shibi. As if she knew it would only lead to me and Shibi turning ourselves into enemies.
"But I couldn't bear to watch it, especially when I suspected that she was holding back her full strength against Shibi to guard her unborn child. Shibi had no idea who his masked opponent was. He didn't even know she was a woman under her armor, let alone pregnant.
"And soon, the inevitable happened...Breathless, I watched horrified as Etsuko lost her fight to Shibi Aburame.
"Carrying my dying teammate from the massacre of the battle around us, I ran from the battlefield to find a medical-nin to treat her. Knowing I was running out of time to save her unborn baby too.
"I wasn't fast enough to save Etsuko in the end...I only made it in time to save her son, Shino.
"A son, who was even more precious to her, because he was born from the secret love between her and the Aburame shinobi who had just defeated her in battle.
"They met in Rōran, Etsuko and Shibi...when Shibi, Minato Namikaze, and Choza Akimichi were sent on a mission to stop Puppet Master, Anrokuzan, from terrorizing the city.
"Keeping her Kamizuru name a secret, Etsuko helped Shibi and his team evacuate the city. It was during that mission that she told me she instantly fell in love with Shibi.
"But rather than face exile for falling in love with an Aburame, Etsuko worked within our clan for the power to change our politics, and create a peaceful world between our clans for her son, and the generations to come of children like him.
"When she died, she named me her successor, and made me promise to always do the right thing for that peace.
"But peace was more complicated than I ever imagined after her death. Shibi never knew that he had fought and killed the mother of his child. But Etsuko was still our clan head, and she had to be avenged.
"Daku swore to destroy the Aburame clan without mercy and make Shibi pay for Etsuko's death. But I had Etsuko's child to worry about first.
"Shino could not stay in his mother's clan. If Daku knew he was Shibi's son, the boy wouldn't be safe in our village. When he turned 3 months old, I knew it was time to smuggle him out of the village, as it was a critical time for Aburame infants to be infused with their kikaichū insects.
"I kept Shino hidden with me as long as I could, before it was time to leave the Stone with him secretly in the middle of the night...He slept soundly in my bee jar pack and didn't wake once during my whole journey to the Leaf Village.
"As for me, I didn't sleep at all...Knowing that he was all I had left of Etsuko.
"I haven't stopped hating Shibi for it since.
"Etsuko never deserved what Shibi did to her. And Shino never deserved to be without his mother. I didn't know what I'd do if I ever saw Shibi again...But I took care of his son like he was my own. Because I made Etsuko a promise that I would not let anything happen to her child...And honoring that promise, I delivered Shino safely to his father in the Hidden Leaf."
"Did Shino ever know about his mother?" she asked him. "Does he know he is a Kamizuru?"
"No one knows. Not Daku, and not Shibi," Hansuke answered, shaking his head. "I never revealed Etsuko's real identity to Shibi. She wanted it that way. She thought it would be too unbearable, if Shibi knew that he was the reason she was dead. She kept that secret out of mercy for him.
"But Shibi wouldn't find me as forgiving.
"I could not take my revenge against Shibi the night I surrendered Shino to the Leaf. I walked away in peace, for the sake of Etsuko's son. But as a Kamizuru leader, I swore I would avenge the Aburame's attack on my clan. Shibi and I agreed to face each other in battle in the future, once Shino settled into their clan and was introduced to his kikaichū.
"And when the time came, I showed Shibi no mercy, willing to die to take my revenge for Etsuko.
"But when I took the upper hand in the fight and had a chance to finally kill Shibi...I couldn't do it.
"I couldn't forget the promise I made to Etsuko before she died.
"As much as I wanted Shibi to rot, I couldn't make an orphan out of Shino.
"For a second time, I failed to kill Shibi that day, in honor of him just becoming a father. And the reasons he failed to kill me in return are his own demons to wrestle with. But we vowed to each other we would meet again some day and finish our fight.
"A day that is still yet to come.
"When I returned to my village, I was ambushed by Daku, who wanted my place as clan head, now that Etsuko was dead. While I was in the Leaf, he pitted the elders against me by framing me for his murder spree in the Aburame Clan, and challenged me to battle. Weakened from my fight with Shibi, I didn't stand a chance to defend my position...Nor did I have anymore desire to..."
"But," she pointed out to him softly. "It's you who are the rightful Head of the Kamizuru Clan."
"After Daku damned me to exile, I am nothing now...I found this bamboo grove and set up my honey farm. I wanted nothing else to do with my clan...or the world out there," Hansuke said sadly. "Until now...Seeing you and Shino working together restored hope in me. Maybe there is still time to honor the promise I made to Etsuko. That is why I need you."
"What would you have me do?" she asked.
"There will come a time when Shino will hear everything you wish to tell him. But now is not that time," Hansuke said. "It will only put him in danger if he learns what I told you. I am not sure how anyone would take him as a half-blood in their ranks, whether Aburame or Kamizuru. But if he is anything like Shibi, I know he is not one to take a bond with anyone lightly. I see that he cares greatly for you. Just as his father deeply loved Etsuko. And just as Shibi might've taken on our entire clan to save Shino's mother, I fear Shino would do the same for you. And so, for the same reason I couldn't tell Shibi about Etsuko, Shino can never know your name."
"But that would mean finding a way to escape this bamboo grove," she said. "And even if I could, Shino is the most observant of shinobi. He will always find a way to plant a bug on me."
"You are his match, after all, and a Kamizuru. You will find a way," Hansuke said. "But above all, you must one day return to Iwagakure, and free our clan from your father's influence."
"You want me to challenge my father?" she said in disbelief. "He swore he would kill me if I ever went back without proof that I have defeated Shino. How can I fight my father and his followers alone?"
"If anyone has the power to do it, it's you. You have the spirit of Etsuko within you. This is our true will of fire. That which is done for the good of the clan," Hansukebachi said. "What belonged to Etsukobachi now belongs to you. Maybe there was a reason Shino and you met in exile. It was your mutual fate to change each other's heart...Just as it is now your duty to leave this grove and find the strength to save both your clans."
"Then you must know the answer to getting out of this grove," she concluded. "If you believe so much in my mission outside of it."
"It is simple...I hear that the key to unlocking the jutsu is what we Kamizuru have never let go of," Hansuke informed her. "Tell your Aburame friend that, and when he realizes the meaning for himself, I will have kept my promise to him."
The bee kunoichi smiled bittersweetly, as the meaning of his words gradually sank in for her too.
"I will, Beekeeper."